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Fourth Annual Mount Sinai Innovation Awards

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research, School

Anne Schaefer, MD, PhD, Inventor of the Year

Individuals and teams from the Mount Sinai Health System were honored for significant advances in research, technology, medicine, and health care at the fourth annual Mount Sinai Innovation Awards ceremony, which was held Monday, October 22, in conjunction with the SinaInnovations conference.

Anne Schaefer, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a
Seaver Fellow at The Friedman Brain Institute, received the Inventor of the Year Award for her work in micro-RNA, which heralds a potential cure for intractable seizures in certain forms of epilepsy, including Dravet syndrome, a catastrophic childhood disease.

Julio A. Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, left, recipient of the Deal of the Year Award, with Scott L. Friedman, MD, Dean for Therapeutic Discovery, and leader of the SinaInnovations conference.

Julio A. Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, Professor, Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology), Otolaryngology, and Oncological Sciences, received the Deal of the Year Award for his research into the underlying causes of metastatic disease and relapse that is the basis for a new startup company in New York City.

Drew Kiraly, MD, PhD, and James Young, MD, PhD, received the Faculty Idea Prize for analyzing more than 1,000 metabolites from the serum of patients undergoing active monitoring for epileptic seizure activity. The analyses of Dr. Kiraly, Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry, and Dr. Young, an Instructor in Neurosurgery and Neurology, will serve as the first step in developing clinically applicable serum biomarkers to help refine and target treatment strategies for epilepsy.

A group of 22 innovators received the 4D Technology Development Program Award for five projects that efficiently move new technologies through a process of discovery, design, development, and delivery:

• Identification of biomarkers for preemptive diagnosis of ocular graft vs. host disease (oGVHD) in patients with hematopoietic cellular transplantation (HCT): Penny A. Asbell, MD; Neeta S. Roy, PhD; James L. Ferrara, MD, DSc; John E. Levine, MD; Eric Kuklinski, BS; and Yi Wei, PhD.

• Automation of radiographic measurements for surgical planning using artificial intelligence: Samuel K. Cho, MD; Varun Arvind, BS; Deepak Kaji, BA; Jun S. Kim, MD; Eric K. Oermann, MD; and Jonathan E. Robinson, MD.

• Development of an epigenetic treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome: Jian Jin, PhD; Yong-Hui Jiang, MD, PhD; and Yan Xiong, PhD.

• Creation of an eye-tracking algorithm for autism: Pilar Trelles, MD; Robert Gilman, MD; Alexander Kolevzon, MD; and Mirko Zimic, PhD.

• Knowledge-based automated radiotherapy planning via deep learning: Yading Yuan, PhD; Yeh-Chi Lo, PhD; and Tzu-Chi Tseng, MS.

The Dean’s Healthcare System Team Science Award, which acknowledges the importance of interdisciplinary teams in translational research, went to 15 members of the DEFINE-FMD Team. The group initiated a large, functional omics study of the genetic and molecular basis of fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), a disease that predominately affects women and results in stroke and myocardial infarction. The study has enabled the team to identify several disease-causing candidates and begin developing a blood-based diagnostic test. The winners were Jason Kovacic, MD, PhD; Jeffrey W. Olin, DO; Antonio F. Di Narzo, PhD; Valentina d’Escamard,
PhD; Daniella Kadian-Dodov, MD; Haoxiang Cheng, PhD; Annette King, RN, ANP; Bhargravi Vonguru, MS; Emir Bander, MD; Allison Thomas, MS; Rihab Bouchareb, PhD; Sander Florman, MD; Johan LM Björkegren, MD, PhD; Manuel Mayr, MD, PhD; and Ke Hao, PhD.

Four individuals received Trainee Innovation Idea Awards, which highlight research ideas from Mount Sinai trainees that could potentially be translated into a marketable product:

• MD student Aly Valliani: Virtual Contrast

• PhD student Billie Bian: MediTrack

• Postdoctoral fellow Sangeetha Vadakke- Madathil, PhD: Placental stem cells for regeneration of an injured heart

• House staff physician Jorge Andrade Romo, MD: Structural vs. functional foveal avascular zone (FAZ) parameters compared at different stages of diabetic retinopathy.

Corporate sponsors for SinaInnovations included Altice Business; Cisco Systems; Dell Technologies; Fisher Scientific; Gilead Sciences; Jones Day; and the Louis and Rachel Rudin Foundation. Health Hackathon sponsors included Persistent Systems.

Health Hackathon Finds Technology-Based Solutions

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research

Mount Sinai hosted its third annual Health Hackathon, an exciting health care innovation competition that ran from Friday, October 19, through Sunday, October 21. Participants included students from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and 12 other academic institutions, plus professionals with a wide range of backgrounds, such as clinical care, business, basic science, engineering, and software development.

They formed 16 teams that worked together over a 48-hour period to create innovative, technology-based solutions to problems in the field of rare diseases.

The winning teams:

Eye Can Do Technology that allows an immobile person to use eye movements to interact with devices in a smart-home environment.

Mango Tango A smartphone app, called Demeter, that helps patients with metabolic disorders track their diet and assess and manage symptoms.

Walk Thru An ambulatory walker with a portable attachment that helps the user get through self-closing doors without letting go of the walker.

“It’s pretty incredible what people can accomplish when they work with like-minded and not like-minded colleagues to create new ventures,” said Janice L. Gabrilove, MD, the James F. Holland, MD Professor of Medicine and Oncological Sciences, and Director, Clinical and Translational Research Education Program, Icahn School of Medicine.

The Health Hackathon is funded by ConduITS, the Institutes for Translational Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine, with sponsorship from the software engineering company Persistent Systems. A diverse panel of judges chose three winning teams, which were each awarded a prize of $2,500. These teams, plus a fourth wild-card team, will be invited to participate in an Innovation Showcase sponsored by Mount Sinai Innovation Partners on February 14, 2019, where they will present their pitches to a panel of entrepreneurs.

Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Included in List of Most Influential in 2018

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research

Two publications from researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been included in an annual listing of the most influential research publications.

The two publications were included in the annual Altmetric Top 100, which highlights research published in 2018 that has generated significant international online attention and discussion in forums including post-publication peer-review sites, public policy documents, the media, blogs, and social media platforms.

The two publications included in the list are:

“Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues,” which was published in March in Scientific Reports. It was ranked number 14 on the list.
“Multiscale Analysis of Independent Alzheimer’s Cohorts Finds Disruption of Molecular, Genetic, and Clinical Networks by Human Herpesvirus,” which was published in June in Neuron. It was ranked number 74 on the list.

Altmetric, which is based in London, tracks and analyzes the online activity around scholarly literature. The firm collates what people are saying about published research outputs in scholarly and non-scholarly forums like the mainstream media, policy documents, social networks, and blogs to provide a more robust picture of the influence and reach of scholarly work.

Altmetric works with some of the biggest publishers, funders, and institutions around the world to deliver this data in an accessible and reliable format.

Road to Resilience Podcast Episode Six: Managing Stress, Anxiety, and Fear

Nov 30, 2018 | Featured, Insights

Jordyn Feingold, a third-year medical student, left, and Benny Laitman, MD, PhD, an Otolaryngology resident

Mount Sinai has released the sixth episode of the monthly podcast series Road To Resilience, which details how reframing stressful thoughts, playing to your strengths, and prioritizing your well-being can help you overcome stress and anxiety. In this podcast, Benny Laitman, MD, PhD, an Otolaryngology resident, and Jordyn Feingold, a third-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explain how they use these resilience factors to cope with the stress they face every day as they explore their new world of medicine.

In the episode, “Managing Stress, Anxiety, and Fear,” Dr. Laitman talks about what it was like to feel stress on a daily basis when starting his residency. He explains how he copes with the pressure of being responsible for patients’ well-being for the first time in his life and performing his first surgeries—even with a rigorous schedule and as he and his spouse prepare for a new baby. Dr. Laitman talks about how he uses resilience to directly face these challenges instead of avoiding them.

“We see a lot of clinic patients, and I can look down the list and see which patients I want to take. For example, I can take the easy cases, like a patient who needs an ear wax cleaning, or I can take the one who needs a cancer workup. I need to deal with the discomfort,” says Dr. Laitman. “Every time you do that, you learn more, you feel less uncomfortable. You feel more confident, and you know how to approach it in the future. You’re supposed to be uncomfortable because that’s how we grow…If you don’t feel uncomfortable you’re probably not learning, you’re probably avoiding things that will make you better.”

Ms. Feingold addresses the issue of student burnout. She details what it’s like to feel immense pressure to succeed while in medical school while tackling a difficult course load. She explains how she uses positive psychology to deal with the stress and anxiety. Additionally she has taken unique steps to build resilience among her fellow students and leads courses on this at the School of Medicine to train and prepare them for challenges. She also emphasizes the importance of prioritizing your well-being, and how this has helped her persevere in times of stress.

“I have to practice self-care. One of the best things I’ve done is subscribing to workout classes…It gets me out of my own routine and doing things outside of my comfort zone. For 45 minutes when you’re in that space, you can’t think about the stress. You leave feeling renewed and ready to go on with your day,” Feingold says. “This is something I tell all of my friends both in and outside of medical school, even my patients and families going through hard times… We have to take care of ourselves so we are as equipped as possible to take care of other people.”

The “Road to Resilience” podcast is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. It features thought-provoking insight from renowned experts as they explain the science behind resilience. The work has been so well received the book now has a second edition.

The book identifies 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including having optimism, a support system, and role models, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from different Mount Sinai experts as they explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.

Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.

Celebrating 50 Years of Adolescent Health

Nov 19, 2018 | Community, Featured

Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, center, with honorees Lenore Katz-Cohen, OD, optical care sponsor and provider, and Robert Cohen, OD, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen’s Fashion Optical, who together with the Cohen family established optical care at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.

The Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center marked its 50th anniversary by honoring five individuals and the Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board at its 15th Annual Breakfast of Legends benefit at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Tuesday, October 30. The Center provides free, comprehensive, confidential health and wellness services to nearly 12,000 young people each year and has become a national leader in adolescent health research, training, and care.

Peter W. May, Chairman, Boards of Trustees, Mount Sinai Health System, welcomed the 500 guests, noting that he had attended every breakfast for the last 15 years. “The Center is one of the shining stars in the Mount Sinai galaxy,” he said. Mr. May also received the Dr. Joan E. Morgenthau Lifetime Advocate for Youth Award.

Honoree Peter W. May

Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health, and Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, acknowledge benefactors, leaders, and staff who have contributed to the Center’s success. “One tree doesn’t make a forest, and one string doesn’t make music,” she said. “All of you make the forest and make the orchestra.” Dr. Diaz also recognized Henry S. Berman, MD, who was one of the original physicians on staff at the Center and worked with Dr. Morgenthau, the Center’s founder; and Jay Roberts, the Center’s first administrator.

“When I stop to think how many young people have been served at the Center, I have to pause—the number is huge, in the hundreds of thousands—and if I then think of the ripple effect on the families and friends of those patients, the number swells exponentially,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System. “How many of us can say we have transformed the lives of so many?”

Read Two Success Stories

Anthony Otey Hernández — From the Bronx to Harvard: A New Start Thanks to Mount Sinai’s Adolescent Health Center

Mary Medina — Growing Up with the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center

The honorees also included Gary C. Butts, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System, and Dean for Diversity Programs, Policy, and Community Affairs for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Lenore Katz-Cohen, OD, optical care sponsor and provider, and Robert Cohen, OD, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen’s Fashion Optical, who together with the Cohen family established optical care at the Center; The Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board; and Bethany Novak, MS, RN, FNP-BC, who joined the Center as a family nurse practitioner in 1988.

Youth speaker Adam Neville

Former and current patients related how the Center had transformed their lives. Adam Neville, a young patient, said that his mother was a patient at the Center when she was a teenager, and that he is named after the counselor she saw. He spoke of his emotional struggles and the support he receives at the Center, saying, “I owe my life as I know it to the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.”

A poignant personal history was given by Hector Vazquez, MD, MS, now a pediatric emergency medicine specialist at Maimonides Medical Center, who, as a 14-year-old growing up in East Harlem, walked three life-changing blocks to the Adolescent Health Center. “Living in East Harlem, I was earmarked for failure. But, the Center’s providers educated me on safer sex practices, the effects of drugs, and making good life decisions, and they challenged my mind on what my life goals were.”

At the time, the staff did not realize they were shaping a future physician. When Hector was a medical student—at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—he did a one-month rotation at the Center.

“It was then I learned just how revolutionary this Center was. I saw how it touched the lives of many, and it inspired me to do the same.”

Honoree Gary C. Butts, MD, left, and speaker Hector Vazquez, MD, MS

A Pioneer in Robot-Assisted Bladder Surgery Joins Mount Sinai, Expanding Urology Care

Nov 19, 2018 | Featured

Peter Wiklund, MD, PhD

Peter Wiklund, MD, PhD, a world-renowned surgeon who pioneered robot-assisted cystectomy, has been appointed Director of the Bladder Cancer Program at the Mount Sinai Health System and Professor of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The appointment marks a significant expansion for the Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology, which also has leading programs in two other major areas in which robot-assisted surgery is used—prostate and kidney cases.

“With this important appointment, Mount Sinai will be able to build a strong bladder cancer program and offer more comprehensive services to patients while also enriching our training and research initiatives,” says Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, the Kyung Hyun Kim, MD Chair in Urology, Mount Sinai Health System. “Dr. Wiklund has trained urologists around the world and established an international reputation as a leading clinician, researcher, and educator. He will now bring that expertise to Mount Sinai and to New York.”

Mount Sinai’s Department of Urology has long been a leader in robotic procedures. These minimally invasive procedures, which doctors perform using special instruments inserted through tiny incisions, offer many advantages over conventional open surgery, including less pain after surgery, shorter hospital stays, and quicker return to normal activities for patients.

The benefits are typically more significant for more extensive procedures, such as removal of the bladder and reconstruction of the urinary tract, which Dr. Wiklund has pioneered for bladder cancer surgery. More extensive surgery is often required because bladder cancers tend to be more aggressive.

“We will be building the same kind of program at Mount Sinai that I have done before, which involves far more than focusing only on what happens in the operating room,” says Dr. Wiklund. “We will need to build teams to prepare patients before surgery, and then continue to follow them afterward with a goal to achieve even better patient outcomes, which has been one focus of my research.” The Mount Sinai Health System has more than 190 urologists on staff , more than any other health care system in New York City.

Previously, Dr. Wiklund was Chair of Urology, Molecular Medicine, and Surgery, and Professor of Urology, at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, where he built a leading cystectomy program, which involves the removal of the urinary bladder. Each year, faculty members at the Karolinska Institutet select those who receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Dr. Wiklund has performed more than 3,000 robotic operations and has extensive experience in advanced oncological surgery in patients whose tumor is growing on several pelvic organs (multiorgan tumor, bladder, prostate, colorectal, ovarian, and uterine), performing live educational surgeries throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. He is chair of the scientific working group of the European Urology Robotic Section of the European Association of Urology and is an international member of the American Urological Association. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and 30 review articles and has been the editor and contributing author for three textbooks on robot-assisted surgery.

“Throughout my career, I have combined clinical practice with original research, and I expect that to continue,” says Dr. Wiklund. “Bladder cancer surgery can be an extensive operation, and we generally follow patients for their lifetimes. By closely following our patients after surgery, we can study how to improve their lives and quicken their recovery.”

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